“We start March 16 with the ‘Lighting of the Shamrock’ at midnight,” owner Jim Cryan said.

The lighting is celebrated with champagne toasts and an expected crowd of a couple hundred patrons, according to Cryan. It has been a tradition at Cryan’s for the last 20 years.

Something new this year will be the addition of a statue of St. Patrick that now adorns Cryan’s, which was previously housed at the recently closed Sacred Heart Church in Vailsburg.

“St. Patrick’s day in Ireland has everything in the country closed,” Cryan said. “There are no bars open, there’s no celebration and it’s a holy day of obligation. So it’s so nice to have St. Patrick here himself on the 17th.”

With the statue’s position in a bar being a topic of controversy with the Archdiocese of Newark, Cryan plans that the statue will be moved to a mausoleum sometime after the holiday.

Cryan’s opens for St. Patrick’s Day at 10 a.m. The beef and ale house will also place host to Susan Gillespie, who will be performing at noon.

Over in Maplewood at the St. James’s Gate Publick House, located at 167 Maplewood Ave, things start a bit earlier in the morning for owner John Meade and his staff.

“What we’ve been doing for the last five years is opening at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Meade said. “A lot of people take the direct line into the city so we usually get 70 to 80 people for breakfast and a pint or two for the day. We have a couple of bagpipers come in for breakfast.”

Two bagpipers are hired for the biggest day of the year for Meade’s establishment, but the owner says anyone is welcome to come in and join in playing music.

St. James’s Gate boats 15 beers on tap, seven of which are from Ireland. Included in those is the newest addition of Kilkenny’s Irish Red, a beer that the pub is one of the first in the country to carry.

A place for traditional Irish cuisine, St. James’s Gate will have its usual Irish menu available. The pub ordered more than 500 pounds of corned beef in anticipation of the holiday, as well Irish soda bread imported directly from Ireland, and four different Irish cheeses that include Cashel Bleu and Kerry Gold.

WESTFIELD, NJ — A 15-year-old Westfield boy has been charged in the assault and robbery of another teen and, separately, car theft, according to Westfield police.

The boy, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was first arrested Jan. 9, along with a 16-year-old boy from Newark, when the two were caught by police Newark with a stolen Dodge Charger from ...

MAPLEWOOD, NJ - Begun two years ago by just a few families whose parents were seeking a safe space for their children to play and, according to group organizers, "meet other kids like them," 'RAD Kids' -- as the group is now known -- has become a safe space for gender-fluid children in North Jersey.

MAPLEWOOD, NJ - One fatality has been reported in the bus crash Tuesday afternoon on Springfield Avenue that also injured four other people, according to an updated press release from the Essex County Prosecutor's office.

The driver of the bus, identified as Larry Wiley, age 65, was transported to University Hospital in Newark where he was pronounced dead at 5:48 p.m., according to Chief ...

Article has been updated here: Fatal Bus Crash in Maplewood on Tuesday Under Investigation

MAPLEWOOD, NJ - Five people were seriously injured when a NJ Transit bus and a garbage truck had a head-on collision around 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a press release from Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino of the Essex County Prosecutor's office.

CHATHAM, NJ - Chatham Superintendent of Schools Michael LaSusa sent out an email Monday night explaining that a Chatham Middle School student made "inappropriate posts to social media" and "referenced a school shooting."

Chatham Police investigated the situation and had determined there was "no active threat to the school." In an act of ...

NEW JERSEY - New Jersey Governor Phillip D. Murphy signed Executive Order No.1 on Monday ordering the flag of the United States of America and the Flag of the State of New Jersey to be flown at half-staff to recognize and mourn the passing of the victims in Parkland, Florida.

The order is for all state offices, agencies and instrumentalities including schools for Tuesday, February ...

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ - At a meeting Thursday night, the East Brunswick board of Education unanimously approved a resolution to engage the East Brunswick Police department to place armed police officers at each school building in the district throughout the entire school day. In a report released by superintendent Victor Valeski, township officials asserted that the move would ...

Both Maplewood and South Orange are looking for new town administrators at the same time, a rare occurrence.

And their approaches couldn’t be any more different.

Maplewood, whose long-time administrator Joseph Manning is retiring May 31, launched its search last month the old-fashioned way: hiring a recruiting firm and letting them do the heavy lifting (or more appropriately the ...

On this week’s episode of AtlantiCast, decade of excellence makes headlines, as Atlantic Health’s place on Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For List leads off the newest episode of AtlantiCast. Also on this week’s show, check out the newest “hybrid” operating room at Morristown Medical Center and find out how Atlantic Health is helping local ...

Breaking Atlantic Health System news on this week’s AtlantiCast! Plus, find out why Morristown Medical Center is one of the best hospitals in the nation when it comes to recovering from joint surgery, see the newest center for fighting brain cancer and an Atlantic Health System red-carpet premiere!

February 12 - Theft; A resident from Burroughs Way reported that sometime over the past day, a snow blower was stolen from an open garage.

February 17- Theft from Auto; At approximately 5:15 p.m., two males were observed going through vehicles on Hillcrest Rd. Officers responded to the area and were able to locate two males fitting the description. The males, 18 year ...

Adult Arrest - Robbery - Shawn Ray Newsome, a 20 year old Newark resident and a 17 year old juvenile were arrested on Saturday, Feb. 3, at approximately 10:45 p.m. for robbery. Two male victims reported that as they were walking on South Orange Ave near the Newark border, they were approached by three actors (described as black males wearing dark clothing and black masks) who ...

SOUTH ORANGE AND MAPLEWOOD, NJ - Due to winter storms and flu disrupting blood donations, the Red Cross is urging donors to donate and help maintain blood supply, according to a press release from the organization.

MAPLEWOOD, NJ - If you were at the Maplewood Senior Center on Wednesday - which happened to be Valentine's Day - you would have seen the somewhat unusual sight of an alpaca. Alfalfa the Alpaca to be precise.

The visit from Alfalfa was the first in the "creature comfort" series from the Maplewood Recreation Department.

TRENTON, NJ – An indictment was handed down in the November carjacking in Millburn where a 13-year old girl was allegedly grabbed by the neck and the suspect threatened to kill her.

The 11-count state grand jury indictment charges Ahmed Anthony, 30, of Newark with conspiracy, carjacking, robbery and making terroristic threats among other charges. The conspiracy in the first-degree ...

WESTFIELD, NJ — A 15-year-old Westfield boy has been charged in the assault and robbery of another teen and, separately, car theft, according to Westfield police.

The boy, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was first arrested Jan. 9, along with a 16-year-old boy from Newark, when the two were caught by police Newark with a stolen Dodge Charger from ...

For the first time in it's three year history, SOMA Film Festival will be offering films that will be seen for the first time ever in America, and the world.

The first of the two world premieres is the profound Fatherhood, a documentary feature about young people from Memphis, LA, New York and London that speak the truth about their absent fathers and perform music videos of original ...

Atlantic Health System, a leading provider of health care in New Jersey, today celebrated a decade of excellence after it was recognized among Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” ranking number 74 in its 10th consecutive year on the prestigious annual list.

It is the only health care delivery system from New Jersey, and the top-ranked New Jersey based company on the ...